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A few weeks ago, back when the 2012 London Olympics were still going strong, German weightlifter Matthias Steiner accidentally dropped over 400 pounds on his neck. It was terrifying, obviously, but because Steiner walked away relatively unscathed, the incident didn’t really leave an impression.

What happened last week to Russian weightlifter Igor Golushkin will definitely leave an impression.

Golushkin, 34, was competing in a powerlifting competition when, for whatever reason, the bar slipped out of his hands and dropped straight onto his chest.

As reported by Red Hot Russia (via The Big Lead):

According to eyewitness, the sportsman used unsafe (banned) technique called “open grip” [ed: possibly related to the position of thumb while holding the bar]. Already during the training session he had the weight of 160 kg slipping from his hands, but then spotters managed to hold the bar.

During the competition, however, the spotters did not succeed to catch the bar in time. Everything happened very quickly. With the torn diaphragm and broken ribs the sportsman was brought to hospital.

The injury appeared to be fatal. Igor died in hospital from heart concussion.

In the video, he isn't false grip, you can clearly see his thumb is wrapped around the bar.

As disturbing as the drop was, it is even more disturbing to see how unprepared the spotters were for something like that. The one on the left wasn't even prepared for a mistake. It is such a shame that he lost his life, prayers go out to his family. I hope this sheds some light on how important spotters are for these attempts, and it pushes home that they need to be trained to be able to spot.

"No citizen has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training.... What a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable."
-Socrates

In the video, he isn't false grip, you can clearly see his thumb is wrapped around the bar.

As disturbing as the drop was, it is even more disturbing to see how unprepared the spotters were for something like that. The one on the left wasn't even prepared for a mistake. It is such a shame that he lost his life, prayers go out to his family. I hope this sheds some light on how important spotters are for these attempts, and it pushes home that they need to be trained to be able to spot.

The spotter in the red shirt was too relaxed! I've seen this happen in the gym and I don't play around with spotting, I always try to be as focused as possible because I would want the same attention in return

That red-shirt spotter should get a beat down for being so, meh, during such a big lift. He wasn't even close to the bar. The other spotter was at least semi-prepped, but he still didn't look ready to catch the bar.

I've wondered, more than once, why it is that safety bars along with spotters cannot be employed in the bench, even for comps; after all, the person arches which means they raise the chest, so if a barbell came crashing down, the chest would sink below the safety bars anyway...less room for potential error; people use safety bars at home but still touch to chest, as far as I know.

So, why not?

Otherwise, you have a severe case of neglect where the spotters are concerned, sicne they are there for the purpose of safety and have to be relied upon; even more so a case in point, if they are chosen and employed by someone other than the lifter themselves.

Just my view; could I put so much trust in someone I did not know, especially if my life was at stake...I highly doubt it. I realise these are normally "freak", once in a blue moon, type accidents, but they do happen and it won't be the last time it does so.